From Donore, Caragh, County Kildare, Seamus Heffernan's first introduction to horse racing came at the stables of Arthur Moore but he served his apprenticeship with Jim Bolger. He shared the title of Champion Apprentice with Daragh O'Donoghue in 1994 and finished runner-up to Pat Smullen in the same championship the following season. Since becoming attached to the Aidan O'Brien stable in 1996, Heffernan has ridden an array of big-race winners and is one of the most successful Irish jockeys in recent years. He won the Epsom Oaks on Was in 2012 and has enjoyed big-race success closer to home with the likes of Soldier Of Fortune and Frozen Fire in the Irish Derby and Halfway To Heaven, Misty For Me and Imagine in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. He won the Irish St Leger on Septimus in 2008. Another big winner was when he won the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Cape Blanco in 2010. Heffernan's first success in the Irish Oaks came at the Curragh in July 2016 when he won the race on Aidan O'Brien's Seventh Heaven. He scored his first win at the Breeders' Cup when taking the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf on the Aidan O'Brien-trained Highland Reel at Santa Anita on Saturday, November 5th, 2016.